Last Potter book coming on July 21

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, last of the iconic Harry Potter series, will be out on July 21, reports Ripu Daman Singh.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, last of the iconic Harry Potter series, will be out on July 21, author JK Rowling has announced on her website. The launch is at 00:01 hours British Summer Time — 5.30 am in India — in all English speaking countries except the US, Rowling said.

Publishers Bloomsbury said they were delighted "this most anticipated of books" was coming. They plan to publish separate children’s and adults’ hardback editions, a special gift edition and an audio book.

At a recommended retail price of £17.99 (around Rs 1,565), the book will be expensive. "We will negotiate for a special price," Thomas Abraham of Penguin India said. "Last time (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) we sold 150,000 copies. This time we might cross 200,000."

Bookings will open a month before the launch. "Last time, we booked 800 advance copies and sold 1,500 in the first two days," Subhash Arora of Teksons said. "The response is bound to multiply this time," Amit Vig of Om Book Shop predicted.

The Half-Blood Prince sold over 2 million copies in the UK, nearly 7 million in the US, and an estimated 100,000 copies in India the day it was released in 2005.